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BETTY SPRING ROAD. 



jfavoritc 2)rivc6 



Hrounb (3arbner 



BY 



CHARLES b. BOKRAQE 



/ 



^^^'!a^^ 



LLUSTRATED FROM ORIGINAL PHOTOGRAPHS. 



FROM PAPERS READ BEFORE THE MONDAY 
CLUB AND GARDNER INSTITUTE. .-. .-. .'. 



The Original Drawings By 
Charles H. Stratton. 

Press of the Gardner News 

Company. J^' 



Copyright, 1896, 
By Charles D. Burrage. 



^^e 



£0 






Xist of miustrations. 



9- 

lO. 

II. 

12. 

13- 

14. 

15- 
16. 

17- 
18. 
19. 
20. 
21. 
22. 

23- 

24. 

25- 
26. 
27. 
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32. 



Betty Spring Road, 



Page. 
Frontispiece. 



Initial— Sedge, (Drawing) . 

Betty Spring Road, . 

Tomb of Rev. Jonathan Osgood, 

Crystal Lake, 

Betty's Spring, .... 

Moneses, Pyrola and Pip- 

sissewa, 
Buckbean, . 
Pale Laurel, . 
Labrador Tea, 
Oldest Cellar-hole, 
Bed of Indian Pipe, 
Worthiugton Park, 
Azalea, 
Columbine, 
Pogonia, 
Calopogon, 
Home of the Azalea. 
Moccasin Flower, . 
Wild Calla, 
Andalusite Crystals, 
Chapel Place, . , . . 
Purple-fringed Orchis, 
The Woods near Crystal Lake, 

(Drawing), .... 
Pitcher Plant, 
Great Green Orchis, 
Ragged-fringed Orchis, 
Meadow Lily, .... 
Snowy Owl, .... 
Old Stump (Drawing), 
The Kneeland Place, 
The Bed of the Brook, (The 

Cardinal Flower), 



Near the Kneeland Place, 

Rhodora, .... 

Bickford-Travers Mill-dam, 

Jackson House, 

Twin Flower, 

In the Woods by Crystal Lake 

(Drawing), . 
39-40 The Old Railroad Cut, 
41. The Coolidge Place, . 
Redemption Rock, 
Redemption Rock— the 

Inscription, . 
Crystal Lake, (The Sheep-pen 
Crystal Lake, (The Upper 

Cove), .... 

46. Fringed Gentians, . 

47. Closed Gentians, 

48. An Orchis, .... 

49. Cardinal Flower, 

50. The Coolidge Place, . 

51. Many-flowered Indian Pipe, 

52. Skull, (Drawing), . 

53. The Whispering Pines, 

54. Bailey Brook, 

55. Lake Denison, . 

56. Blueberry Blossoms, 

57. Beryl Mine, 

58. Lake Denison, 

59. Ladies' Tresses, 

60. White-fringed Orchis, . 

61. Tomahawk, (Tail-piece), 

62. Map of Roads of Gardner, 

63. Map of Early Settlers, 



Page. 

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28 
29 
30 
31 

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33 
34 
35 

• 36 

), 37 

■ 38 
39 

. 40 
40 

. 40 

• 41 
41 
42 
43 
44 
45 
46 

47 
48 

49 
50 
51 



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jfavovitc ©rives Hrounb (Bavbneu. 




■' T have learned 
To look on nature, not as in the hour 
(3f thoughtless youth." 

— It'ordszL'Oii/i. 



" We are pnt here to serrete something 
everlasting out of nature." 

— 77/iiij/as Starr A'nii''. 



I'R hill-town of Gardner, situated on the highest 
part of the Imckbone of the state, on the crest 
of the ridge Ijetween Wachusett and Monad- 
nock, is 1 200 feet above the sea, and in sum- 
mer all the breezes of New England fan her 
brow. The waters flow away in every direc- 
tion ; to the west by Otter River, to the north by Miller's River, to the 
east by the Nashua, and to the south by a branch of the Ware River. 
The roof-tree of more than one house in Crardner divides the rain drops 
as they fall, to send part to the Connecticut and the Sound, and part to 
the ocean above Cape Ann. No wonder she can boast the best record 
in the Commonwealth for the smallest percentage of deaths from con- 
sumption. Built on the tops of her seven hills, whichever way we go 
is "down-hill." Winchendon lies 200 feet below to the north and 400 
feet to the west ; Templeton from 400 feet l)elow at Baldwinville to only 




"The birds srng in the branches." 

famous in New Eng^land 



lOO feet at the Centre, on the brow of Dolbier hill ; Hubbardston and 
Westminster, 200 feet below, and Ashburnham on the east, where the 

villages are, 200 feet below, while Fitch- 
burg, twelve miles away, lies 700 feet below. 
Gardner has many pleasant drives 
through the woods within and beyond her 
borders, and the stranger may safely take 
any road, confident that he will find beauties 
on every side ; dark woods inviting him to 
their cool recesses ; silvery streams reflect- 
ing the enchantments of the sylvan shades 
on their banks ; flowers in profiision on 
either hand, in all the colors of the rain- 
bow ; and from every hill-top views rivall- 
ing in magnificence the choicest and most 
For not even from famous Round Hill, 
in Northampton, looking down upon the wide Connecticut meadows, 
with the ribbon of the river winding through them, nor from the Pjerk- 
shire Hills around the I^enox bowl, nor from the Blue Hills of Milton, 
half lost in soft haze from the ocean, are there afforded such glorious 
and extensive views of hills, woods, lakes and mountains — the peculiar 
charm of the New England landscape — as those from our own (iard- 
ner hills. 

Each drive has its special charm, however ; one l)ecause of a par- 
ticular view, another because the haunt of a rare 
wild flower that grows nowhere else, and others 
because of the stories of the deserted ' ' cellar- 
holes " by the wa}', marking the sites of ancient 
homesteads. 

The drives around Gardner are beautiful 
because they are through a country still left to 
nature, where the brush by the roadside screens 
the fields, and the woods have not seen the 
woodman's axe for a generation. Every year 
sees some great tract of woodland despoiled of 
its royal crown, but every year also sees old 
sprout lots become full-grown woods, that hide 
the heavens from us as w^e eagerly seek their 
depths. Even ])efore the trees grow large enough 
to choke to death the Ijcrrj' bushes they invited 
in their struggling youth, we rejoice with tlieni in their coming glory 




Tomb of Rev. Jonathan Osgood, 

'I'hc I'iist Settled Minister, 




3*W 




BETTY'S SPRING. 



When 



Ube Bett^ Sprinci lRoa&. 

The south wind wanders from field to forest, 
And softly whispers, ' The Spring is here," 



we first of all turn our horse's head eastward, passing from the bus}^ 
town streets at once into the shade of the overhanging and ' ' venerable 
woods" at Betty's Spring, the choicest spot in Gardner, where the 

birds sing in the branches, and, at 
evening, the plaintive cr}' of the 
whip-poor-will echoes the shrill call 
of the quail. In the early part of 
the present century, two Indians, 




Moneses. 



Pyrola. 



Pipsissewa. 



Betty and her husband Jonas, last of 

their tribe, lived on the side-hill 

above the spring since called by her 

name, in the cottage built by one of 

the early settlers, John Miles. Only 

the cellar now remains. Before this 

they lived a few rods beyond the 

railroad crossing on the right, on 

the Beech Hill road, where faint 

traces of the cellar may still be 

found in the woods. Afterwards, 

wdth a nephew named Jodorus, they moved to the Temple place on 

Green street, and died there. In the shadow of the woods by Betty's 

Spring, beneath the great trees, 

" Huge trunks and each particular trunk a growth 

Of intertwisted fibres serpentine 

Upcurling and inveterately convolved," 




Buckbean. 



benjamins ( TtUliuvi eredum ) abound, and the painted trillium ( Tril- 
lium erythrocarpum ) with its white face. Here we find the mayflower 
{Epigoea repens) nestling in its bed of snow, and Jack-in-the-pulpit 
( Ariso'a triphyllum ) preaching to hundreds of his brothers. A 
little later the whole hillside under the century-old trees blossoms 
out, for the foam flower ( Tiarella cordifoUa ) and the Canada May- 
flower ( Maianthcmum Canadcnse ) hide the many violets as they 
change from yellow to white and to purple, and the glad yellow of the 
Clintonia borcalis grows richer in the moss. Here, in summer, the 




Pale Laurel. 



wax-like meml)ers of the heath family tempt us b>' their profusion, for 
the shin-leaf, or lil>--of-the-valley ( I'vrola cUiptica ) grows in beds by 
the side of the shining-leaved Princes' pine, or Pip.sis.sewa (C///w^/>///7^ 
umbcllata ), near the beautiful, one-flowered pyrola { Mofieses gra?idi- 
flora ), and their degenerate cousin, the parasitic Indian pipe ( Mono- 
tropa unifldra ) , the ghost-flower, or corpse plant, hides its pure white 
stalks in the depths of the woods among the dead leaves. The brook 
at the edge of the woods runs murmuring through the meadow and 
loses itself beneath the heavy growth beyond. On the hillside huge 
boulders lie .strewn about in picture.sque abandon, as if just from the 



hands of giants wearied in pla}'. From the woods little streams come 
trickling to the meadow, making nooks and dells and glens, where the 
ferns, undisturbed, speak in every delicate frond, of the sanctit\' of 




Labrador Tea. 

nature inviolate, and the harsh noises from the town's pushing, 
hustling, money-making factories sink into softness, recalling man's 
universal kinship. These rough, worn hill-sides, scarred and seamed 



by storms, and covered with the growths of a century, with their grassy 
knolls and beds of flowers, inviting retreats and shady nooks, appeal to 
the desire for rest and peace instinctive in us all, a longing becoming 
pathetic in its intensity in such a busy, hard-working town as Gardner. 

'' These shades 
Are still the abodes of gladness; the thick roof 
Of green and stirring branches is alive 
And musical with birds, that sing and sport 
In wantonness of spirit." 




The Ufdest Cellar-Hole. 

On the left from Pearl street, half a mile from the road, almost 
hidden by the btishes growing around it, is the oldest cellar-hole in 
Gardner, and the only one whose history is lost. The eighteen-inch 
.stump of a pine tree that grew in its centre indicates an abandoinnent 
long before the settlement of the town. A few narrow, hand-made 
brick of ancient pattern and the iron crane that once hung in the stone 
chimney, attest the presence of a white man, as does the deep cellar 
itself ; but all else is gone forever. 

In these woods a favored maiden once found the rare white ladies' 
slipper ( Cypripediuni candidum ) , perhaps the only one ever found in 
Worcester County. 



lO 

Just beyond the town "dump" on Pearl street, on the knoll, is 
a cellar hole once occupied by the house of Bezaleel Hill, who left town 
in 1812. He was a famous inventor, an original of Darius Green, as 
he invented a flying machine and, with great wings on his arms, leaped 
from his second-story window. The story runs that he said the flying 
was all right, but it was the stopping that hurt. 

Slowly we leave these woods 

"Where, when the sunshine struck a yellow shade 
The rugged trunks, to inward peeping sight 
Thronged in dark pillars up the gold green light," 

to drive straight on to Westminster, all the wav a delisrht. 




V\ui lliiii(|Luii I'drk. 

The delicate wild geranium ( (rcraniui)i iiiaiuIatuDi ) and, in sum- 
mer, the wood lily ( Li/iiCDi P/iiladcifyliiruiii ) and clover head polygala 
( Polygala saiiguinea ) brighten the roadside with their beds of color. 
Or we may turn through Temple street and go under the railroad to 
climb Bar])er hill, and then by little-itsed roads past Tophet swamp to 
the village of Westminster, returning through the woods and swamps 
on the "turnpike" to South Oardner, picking the white swamp honey- 
suckle ( Rhododendron viscosiini ) l^looming in the very midst of the 



II 




12 

waters, and the snake's head { Chclone glabra) showing white in the 
edge of the woods. 

The old County road did not run through these swamps, but bore 
off to the south, passing over the hill above the Baptist church, past 
Wright's mill and on the side hill just below the original Jonathan 
Greenwood house, a route long ago discontinued and now almost oblit- 
erated. 

Near the old cellar-hole on the top of Wright's hill, where the 
first house (burned in iSoS) Iniilt by Joseph Wright stood, is tlie 




Columbine. 

ancient well, and by its side a large stone with a circular hollow in its 
top that the family used for many years as a wash basin. It was possi- 
bly in use before their, time by the Indians as a mortar for grinding 
corn. 

TLhc ®l& (Siuaci. 

A visit, one day in early spring, to the " old quag " by the railroad, 
near Ea.st street, a favorite resort of the village boys for generations, 
rewarded us with the purple blossoms of the jntcher-plant ( Sarfairnia 
purpurea ) ; the fresh and attractive white stalks of the buckbean 
{Menyanthes trifoliata), a rare flower in Worcester County, at first 
sight suggesting an orchid ; the slender and delicate white Smilacina 
tri folia, which almost unconsciously is called lyily-of-the- valley ; from 



13 




Pogonia. 



the fringe of bushes at the land's edge, the woolly-leaved Labrador tea 
{Ledinn /atifoliiun ), a rare and radiant shrub found in few towns in the 
county, and the bell blossoms of the low-bush blueberry ( Varciniuni 

vaciHaiis) . Here, beside 
the brilliant blossoms of the 
rhodora ( Rhododoidron rJw- 
dora) that lighten the 1)leak 
l)areness of the bushes just 
butlding into leaf, in the 
middle of the swamp, just 
above the water we find, 
also, an earlier and exceed- 
ingly graceful sister of the 
mountain laurel, the deli- 
cate, fragile pale laurel 
( k'a/iiiia o la lira ) . The 
treacherous nios^ sinks deep 
into the water as we cross 
it, and the air-holes catch 
us, drawing us into their 
depths until we fairly gasp 
at the rush of cold waters, the thick, slim}' ooze under the tangled 
roots holding the feet with almost overpowering suction. But it is a 
rich treasure house of flowers, a delight and a joy to remember forever 
after — just such a bed as would attract the 
fairest and daintiest of New England's 
jewels — the brightest colored and choicest 
of the flowers. 

Pearl street, itself, leads to Ashburn- 
ham Centre and Meeting-house Hill, with 
its wonderful views. It is well worth climb- 
ing the great hill to stand on the north 
brow and look across the Naukeags with 
their wooded islands, "when the gold of 
evening meets the dusk of night ; " a view 
unsurpassed, save, perhaps, on Lake 
George. On the way home, in late sum- 
mer, we find a rattlesnake orchis ( Good- 
vera pubescens ) by the roadside, and note the curious mark- 
ings of the leaves. We may drive straight on from Pearl street to the 
very edge of the town, to Worthington 'Park, at the end of the road, 




14 




15 

and looking at the fire-scorched ruins, reflect upon the transitorj' na- 
ture of all eartlil}' plans. Between the high cellar-walls the fireweed 
( Epilobium aiigiistifoliiim ) glow^s with brilliant color, contrasting with 
the blackened trunks of the ancient trees. 

Then to the right, down the steep hill, we ride for an hour or 
more, on winding roads, through thicket and brush, 

"A land of trees, which reaching ronnd about. 
In shady Ijlessing stretched their oUl arms out, 
With spots of sunny openings," 




Moccasin flower. 



in the shade of maple, pine and oak woods, silent, cool, and filled with 

beauties, where 

" The pines are whispering in the breeze 
Whispering — then hushing, half in awe — 
Their legends of primeval seas," 

emerging finalh' upon the broad highway in the middle of Ashburn- 
ham, to return throtigh the long village street at the Jtmction. 



i6 



(Ibapcl Street. 

Or, we hiay take the Beech Hill road to Westminster, and, on the 
right, enter an abandoned road that plunges at once into brush and 
brier, where the tall grass reaches to the carriage. On a low rise of 
land fronting the shining rails of the railroad, are the cellar-holes of 
several buildings, with fruit trees run wild around them. Cherries 

hang ripe and red on the 
trees ; lilac bushes, luxuri- 
ant in their abandonment, 
flaunt their colors on either 
side above the cellar, where 
the decaying timbers are 
overrun with raspberries, 
the fruit large, rich and 
tempting. But when we 
learn the story of the place, 
we remend)er with regret. 
Many years ago this was 
a thriving New lingland 
farm, with sons and daugh- 
ters around the hearthstone 
looking forward to life's 
blessings. To this house- 
hold disease suddenly came 
— a foul and loathsome disease that struck down one after another, and 
drove in horror every friend and neighbor from them. The father, 
taken ill, died of small-pox, and was hastily buried on the farm itself. 
The house became as if accursed. Provisions were brought only to 
the wall down the road. Im- 
agine, if you can, the last sad 
scene of this pitiful liistor}-, 
when the mother, alone with 
her sick, in her sorrow and 
almo.st broken by the strain of 
her weeks of watching, stood 
all one night b}' the bedside of her dying child. Then she went awa}^ 
forever. So the buildings were left to decay, with a horror attached, 
that for years has kept all human kind away from them, leaving the 
lonely graves to grow each passing ^ear more lonely, — 




Wild Calla. 





Andalusite Crystals. 

( Crystnl t,;ike.) 



17 



"Where roses blossomed, branches now o'erspread ; 
The mournful ruins bid the spirit weep, 
The broken fragments stay the passing tread." 

On the left is where a soldier in the French and Indian wars set- 
tled, Chapel, for whom the street was named. He died in 1820, at the 
age of one hutidred and three years, the oldest person who has died in 
Gardner. 

The swamp across the railroad entices tis with its promises of hid- 
den treasures, for here from the sphagnum moss in the water, among 




'Where Roses Blossomed. 



the white blossoms of the cranberry ( Vaainiinii macrocarpon ) , spring 
one of the prettiest of the orchis family, the pink flower of the beauti- 
ful beard ( Pogonia ophiogiossiodes ] . And its beautiful sister, the In- 
dian pink ( Calopogon pu/clielhis ) is near, its rich purple blossoms con- 
trasting strangely delicate beside the cat-tails. Careless of everything, 
save the delight of communing with Nature in her home, we wade far 
out into the treacherous waters to find the wild calla ( Cal/a palustris ) 
hiding its pure white petals in the very heart of the swamp, reserving 
its beauties for those who love it and seek it in its retreat. In early 
spring the flower masses of white almost cover the waters — a beautiful 
picture. 



We may go on over Beech hill to enjoy the views, or turn sharply 
to the right to cross the country to the Betty Spring road near West- 
minster, returning laden with flowers, and listening to 

" The breeze murmuring in the musical woods 
Where the embowering trees recede, and leave 
A little space of green expanse." 

XTbe IRortb lRoa&s. 

From the Windsor House as a starting point, we drive north ex- 
pectantly, for the woods run together for miles and the houses are few. 
We may go to the right over Matthews' hill, with berries in abundance 




The Purple Fringed Orchis at Home. 

on either side, and keep on through the swamp, past ancient home- 
steads indicated by abandoned cellar-holes, to Pearl street; or go north 
to the end of the road at the Nashua reservoir, enjoying every rod of 
the wooded drive. 

But when the day is young and we want a long drive, we go on 
past the great elm at Page's (the largest in Gardner) throtigh woods 

that seldom see a carriage, where 

" * * * fantastic aisles 
Wind from the sight in brightness and are lost 
Among the crowded pillars," 



19 

over a brush-grown road that leads for miles without a house, through 

the swamps, where, in June, 

' ' The Atlantic June, 
Whose calendar of perfect days is kept 
By daily blossoming of some new flower." 

the azalea ( Rhododendro7i 7iudifloriim ) blooms on acres and acres of 
bushes, where the moccasin flower, or lady's slipper ( Cypr ipediuvi 
acaule), another of the orchis famil)', boasts its careless wealth of 
color, and where the columbine ( Aqiiilegia Canadensis ) , daintiest and 
most graceful of flowers, welcomes us to her home on the fern-covered 
bank. Every little while we pass a deserted "cellar-hole" and tell 
again the varying life histories of their former owners ; some sad, some 
tragic, all pathetic. All the way we delight in the profusion of flowers, 
for the pyrola and its white sisters lie in beds about us, the Indian-pipe 
is under almost every bush and by every log, while the one-flowered 
pyrola, the exquisite star of the Moneses grandiflora, forces an excla- 
mation of genuine pleasure from us, when we see a great bed of its 
pure white, waxy petals under the spreading branches of a pine. 
Abundant in this vicinity, it is unknown elsewhere in the county. The 
swamps in the woods fairly glow with the beautiful blossoms of the 
purple-fringed orchis ( Habcnaria Jimbriata), most precious and most 
sought-for of all the season's flowers. How the heart thrills at the 
first sight of the delicate, fragile blossoms gleaming white against the 
dark background of the woods. Here in the dense woods, where the 
sun never shines, 

" In the deep glen, or the close shade of pines," 
we find the great green orchis { //a befiaria orb/cn/a fa ), whose large, 
full-orbed leaves add to its royal dignity. 

At the four corners we can go west to force a narrow w^ay through 
brush that sadly scratches the carriage to the little red schoolhouse on 
the main Winchendon road ; and once we used to go east to the Junc- 
tion, but now the road is discontinued. Here in the swamps, the curi- 
ous fiy-trap, or pitcher plants ( Sarracenia purpurea ) , grow in httndreds 
and we watch them 

" How at the dawn they wake, and open wide 
Their little petal windows " 

safe here from all intrusion by man, and 

" The passion they express all day 
In burning color, steals forth with the dew 
All night in odor." 

and the ragged fringed-orchis ( Habcnaria lacera ) keeps them com- 
pany. So we keep straight on to leave the woods at last at the Astor 



20 




'Leafless are the trees; their purple branches 
Spread themselves abroad, like reefs of coral rising silent 
In the Red Sea of the winter sunset." 



21 



House, the old tavern on the turnpike at Burrageville, in North Ash- 
burnham, the home of the yellow meadow or Canada lily, the fairies' 
or witches' cap {IJ/iiirn Canadensc) , whose branched stems and 
graceful drooping bells remind us of candelabra in some ancient 
cathedral. The meadows and even the roadside are rich to prodigality 
with the golden bells, and the delicate, smaller purple f ringed-orchis 
{Habenaria psycodes) growing 

" Beside a brook in mossy forest dell " 
hardly lessens our admiration by the glory of its richer beauty. By the 
bridge we once picked a ^^^^^^^^^^^^^ large cluster of purple 
meadow-rue {Thalidriun ^^^^^^^^^^^H pjirpurascens) , more 
delicate than its graceful ^^^^^^^^^^H sister. We return b}' 
the great mill-dam and ^^^^Hn^^^^H ^^^ little red school- 
house, where the roads ^^^^^Ga^^^l corner, and on either 
side, in a little way, corner ^^^HJ^Bj^^^H in fours again, making 
eight different roads at ^^^RSQ^^^^H o^^" service, each with 
its own peculiar and ^^^Hff^S^^^^I inviting charms. One 
is the old toll-road, bring- ^^^V^||^^^^| i^^g^ us out near the 
Town Farm; another ^^^HH^^^^^I climbs the great hill, 
and passing for miles ^^^^^■^^^^^H under 




Pitcher Plant. 





Ragged Fringed Orchis. 



Great Green Orchis. 



" green-robed senators of mighty woods. 
Tall oaks, branch-charmed by the earnest stars " 

becomes Stone street, in Gardner, one of the prettiest drives in town; 
and by another we go to old Winchendon to enjoy a particularly fine 
view of Monadnock on the way. 

All through these woods we catch glimps&s of the brown rabbit 
hopping along in front of us, and every little while the whir-r-r of the 
partridge startles us from our reveries. Once we drove into the midst 



22 

of a young famil}-, and instantly the mother-bird fluttered by the 
carriage, apparently hurt unto death, causing eager pursuit through 
the bushes until she had led us a safe distance; then, recovering, she 
flew far away; we almost fancied we heard a laugh as she left us. Her 
little, brown-backed children hid themselves under the brush, keeping 
absolutely quiet while we stood over them watching their nervous 
heart throbbines. 




Meadow Lily. 



The long, bushy tail of the fox is sometimes seen disappearing 
through the bushes ahead, indicating "good hunting" here, and the 
dust in summer and the snow in winter bear the imprint of the raccoon 
in almo.st perfect imitation of a baby's foot. 

The red squirrel abounds, for nuts are plenty, and, with the wood- 
pecker for company, an occasional chipnumk or rare gray squirrel fill 
the woods with life. 



23 




SNOWY OWL. 



24 

Otters once frequented the river named from them, Otter River, and 
are still found there; a wildcat was recently killed near the Nashua 
reservoir, and a Snowy Owl, from Canada, in 1882 strayed to its death 
on Glazier Hill. Two or three deer have visited here in late years, 
probably driven south by the severe winters. 




TLbc 1kneelan5 /iDai^s. 

Crime, sorrow, disease, the wrong of man to man, and man 
to woman have not spared our peaceful town in the century of its 
life, and the dense growth of its great woods, for miles seldom trodden 
by man, hide many a dark mystery, the shame of many a crime. 

As we drive through the West Village with its thronging homes, 
we turn aside, near the curve in the railroad, to visit a gravel-knoll 
half a mile from the road, secluded and covered with wood. On this 




The Kneeland Place. 

low hill, (debris of a moraine dating from the glacial epoch) a hunter, 
a few years since, found in the shade of a tree a withered human body, 
with a rope around the neck and a broken end hanging from a limb 
overhead. He had lain there two or three years, unknown, unseen, 
perhaps never missed. The mystery of the suicide remains to this day 
unsolved, and, buried on the .spot, the sleep of the faint-heart continues 
unbroken under the tree he chose, in a lonely and soon-to-be-forgotten 
grave. 

We linger a moment near here, in the bed of the brook, to rejoice 
in the wealth of flowers that greets us on ever}- side, for the purple 
monkey-face {Mimnlus ringeyis) hides under the bushes, with the 



26 

skull-csLp (ScufeHaria galericidata) beside it; near by the dainty blue 
and yellow of the "ruby grape of Proserpine," the nightshade {Sol- 
anwri dulcamara) hangs close to to the golden blossoms of the jewel- 
weed (^Impatiens pallida ) ; below us the pool is white with arrow head 
( Saggitaria variabilis ) ; from our feet rises a great club of thorough- 




" The red pennons of the cardinal 
flowers 
Hang motionless npon their npright 
staves." 

wort, or boneset { Eupatorium pcrfoliatum) , while in the foreground 
the brilliant cardinal-flower ( Lobelia rardinalis) , High Priest of the 
Tabernacle, stands stately, erect and magnificent in all the bright glory 
of its coloring. 

Then on through the valley, where the swamp flowers abound, 
white lilies lie in the sun, and, late in the sttmmer, great beds of purple 
asters, harbingers of autumn, fill the roadside with their masses of star- 
like blossoms. Turning to the right in E^ast Templeton, we swing 
rapidly down the long, exhilerating curves of the hill to Bailey brook, 
through woods that the twin-flower ( Lituia-a borealis ) loves, and the 



27 

air is filled with its fragrance— one of the flowers that conduce to 
thought, through which 

" Ever the words of the gods resound ; 

But the porches of man's ear 
Seldom, in this life's low round. 
Are unsealed, that he may hear." 

The twin-flower is no longer found in Worcester county outside of the 
few northern towns, so the great beds in Gardner are especially inter- 

esting. 

As we return on the circuit, at the head of Parker's pond and the 
junction of Wilder and Kneeland brooks, almost within sound of the 




Near the Kneeland Place. 

busy life of Gardner, we find, by the foot of a tall tree, a faint cellar- 
hole marking the site of the home of the Kneeland Maids. They were 
two aged sisters, daughters of Timothy Kneeland, one of the earliest 
settlers in Gardner, found beaten to death in their beds m March, 1855. 
The buildings were destroyed by fire the following May, and a crime 
that filled the whole state with horror, and caused, to the timid, fear 
and apprehension for many a long year thereafter-a crime that was as 
brutal and cowardly as any in the history of the Commonwealth, went 
unpunished by man, and after forty years leaves the ashes of a once 
happy home its only reminder. 

Or keep on through East Templeton, turning to look at the great 
blossoms on the tulip-tree ( Liriodendron tuUpifera ) at the corner of the 
Parkhurst house-lot, and as you climb the long Ladder hill, note an 



28 




RHODORA. 



29 

especially attractive view— Gardner and its multitude of houses framed 
in by the walls of earth. All roads that are before you are invit- 
ing, but if you have the time, go down into and across the Ware River 
valley, through the Four Corners, and swing home through Phillipston 
Centre and Goulding Village, across the Great Meadows, where pout 
and pickerel thrive. On such a trip, if in late July, one may find, in a 
hollow between the Phillipston hills, a great cluster of purple loose- 
strife ( Lythriim salicaria ) crowning the marsh, standing as brilliantly 
erect as in its native land in the days of Ophelia. 




Bickford-Travers Mill-Dam. 

" There is a willow grows aslant a lirook 
That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream. 
There with fantastic garlands did she come 
Of crow flowers, nettles, daisies and long purples 
That liberal shepherds give a grosser name. 
But our cold maids do dead men's fingers call them." 

To get far away from the noise of the town, turn south from East 
Templeton to Hubbardston, over Mine hill. The road terraces the 
steep hillside, with precipitous depths beneath in the shadows of the 
woods ; the curv^es under the hill reminding us of the famous Geyser 



30 

grade. Here the railing is for actual use, and we can almost level with 
our eyes the top of the tall hemlock that grows just below the road. 

"Steep is the side * * * shaggy and wild 
With mossy trees and pinnacles of flint 
And many a hanging crag." 

It makes little difference whether 3'ou return by the way of Ragged 
hill and through the long woods below the Pail Factory, where the 
Mayflower {Epigcva repcns ) first blooms every spring, and "the green 
vistas arch like the hollows of mighty waves of some crystalline sea ; " 
or go on through Hubbardston in a wilderness of drives ; a glorious 
prospect, with woods and ponds alternating in an unending pageant of 
pleasure. The wild calla ( Calla palustris ) haunts the swamps, and 
we pick several varieties of tick-trefoil as we drive along. The morn 
ing-glory {Convolvulus Aiiwn'canus) bells cover the walls and rock- 
piles, and the wild bean ( Apios tuberosa ) barricades the banks. Re- 
turning from Hubbardston with a bunch of brilliant red Oswego tea- 
heads ( Monarda didynia ) we drive slowly by the old mill-dam of the 
Bickford mill, the first built in town, destroyed by fire August 20, 1895. 
On Kendall hill, behind the station, where the old turnpike crossed the 
brow of the hill, a few elms still stand sentinel over the site of the 
Jackson house, the first house bviilt in Gardner. Here the "bright 
chalices ' ' of the painted-cup ( Castillcia coccinca ) glow 

"In the green like flakes of fire," 
its scarlet tufts 

"Tinted thns to hold the dew for fairies." 




From photo by K. H. Bruwn. 

Jackson House. 

Built 1764' 



®n (3la3ler Mill. 

One of the earliest settlers had the courage ( and love of nature ) 
to build his house on the top of Glazier hill, where the reservoir now 
is. He sold in 1772, to John Glazier, from whom the hill takes its 
present name. The house now stands on Morrill street, and is the 
oldest in town. In it was held the first town meeting in Gardner. As 
we climb the hill, the winding road brings us fresh surprises at ever}' 
turn, for we are on a great pyramid with all the Commonwealth spread 
out before us, and 

***** "The mountains that infold 
In their wide sweep, the colored landscape round, 
■Seem groups of giant kings, in purple and gold, 
That guard the enchanted ground." 




Twin Flower. 

From the first blush of morning, mantling the face of Wachusett, 
standing huge and solitary in the plain, twelve miles away to the south, 
to the last red arrow shot by the setting sun against the dark l)lue mass 
of Monadnock, watchman of the Northern hills, one of the 
" Mountain columns with which earth props heaven ; " 

from the faint gray 

" The pure mist — the pity of the sea 
Coming as a soft white hand," 

to curtain the beds of the flowers in the swamps in early morning, to 

the drawing of the fog-covers over the rivers, reflecting golden glories 



32 

of the sky at sunset ; we watch the wonderful transformations, as the 

sun lights up the woodlands, shadows the long lines of hills, and turns 

the 

" Waters resting in the embrace of the wide forest," 

into quivering glowing quicksilver, instinct with life, and color and 

beauty — 

" A hundred hills their dusky backs upheaved 
All over this still ocean ; and beyond 
Far, far beyond, the solid vapour stretched 
In headlands, tongues and promontory shapes," 

and all the fair land at our feet reminds us of the gardens of Armidas 
of which Tasso sings, 

" .Still lakes of silver, streams that murnrring crept, 
Hills, on whose sloping brows the sunbeams slept ; 
Luxuriant trees, that various forms displayed, 
And valleys, grateful with refreshing shade ; 
Herbs, fiow'rets, gay with many a gaudy dye. 
And wood, and arching grottos meet the eye." 




Last of Its Race. 



33 











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1Re&emption IRocft. 

An eight-mile drive takes us through Westminster by the left side 
of Wachusett Lake, near the foot of Wachusett Mountain, to the 
broad-topped Redemption rock, just by the roadside; its further side 
twenty feet above the grass. The inscription on its face tells its story. 




From Photo. 



Redemption Rock. 



We may everywhere find flowers, rare and beautiful, but we have 
a choice as to where to go at different seasons. On Lynde hill, in the 
very heart of the town, the hepaticas ( Hcpatica striloba ) grow 

" When spring unlocks the flowers to paint 
the laughing soil ; " 

Checkerberries, or wintergreen, ( Gaultheria procumbens ) redden Bick- 
ford's or Parker's hill, with their abundance ; and in summer the 
smaller orchid, ladies' tresses ( Spiranthes gracilis ) twists through the 
dying grasses on Glazier hill. By Crystal Lake the white laurel ( Kal- 
mia latifolia ) and the lamb-kill, or sheep laurel {Kalmia augustifolia ) 
relieve the darkness of the woods ; the American brooklime ( Verotiica 



36 

Americana) shields itself from prying eyes ; and in the fields on the 
hillsides rising from its waters, we find the pimpernel {Anagallis 
arvensis) and the corn cockle {Lychnis gifhago) . The fringed polygala 
{Polygala paucifolia) grows abundantly on Greenwood Hill. The 
maiden hair fern is no longer found in Gardner, but still flourishes in 
some favored spots in Templeton. The wood anemone {Anemone 
nemorosa), the "wind-flower," grows in great abundance in the low 
land near the pail factory; the European hawkweed {Hicracium aiiran- 
tiacum), "the devil's paint-brush," may be found on the roads to the 
east, and the rhodora {Rhododendron rhodora) , brilliantly beautiful in 
its purple brightness, may be found on every hill and in every swamp. 
On one road to the north is a quarter-acre lot that is fairly covered with 
these bushes, every one a mass of color, in the spring. The beautiful 
white fringed orchis {Habcnaria blepharigloftis) lines the edge of one 
swamp on East street, and is found in several others. Beech-drops, a 
curious parasite ( Epiplicgns \^irginiana ) are abundant in the woods 
by Crystal Lake. 








-vi^i^nslKisip*'"*^ 



From Photo. 



Redemption Rock. 



I ho Inscription. 



37 




38 




Upper Cove. 



' Lake of the hills, where cool ami 

sweet, 
Thy sunset waters lie." 



Broun& (Ivvstal Xaftc. 



For a varied and interesting drive start from Monument Square 
and go past the green lawns on the hill, past the smooth, rich fields of 
the Heywood Farm, and turn to the left. Crystal L,ake lies before us 
as a brilliant jewel, with its setting of green; to the north, Monadnock, 

black and forbidding, bars the view. By 
the lakeside, in September, we chance 
upon the latest, and almost the fairest of 
the season's flowers — the wary, fringed 
gentian {Gcntiana crinita) 

"colored with heaven's own blue," 
the flower of which the poet sings, 

'•p-Qur plumes from the bluebird's wing, as fast 

to the south he flew 
The Angel of Flowers caught them up as they 

fell in the autumn dew, 
And shaped with a twirl of her fingers this spire 

of feathery blue." 

By its side is the slender-twisted white 
orchis, ladies' tresses {Spiranthcs cernua.) 
Earlier in the year, the strange sundew 
{Drosera rotiuidifolia) , with carniverous 
leaves feeding on insects attracted by the 
sweet "dew" that glistens like a tiny web 
of diamond dust, raises its drooping head 
in the meadow farther north, and a great 
bed of wood-sorrel {Oxalis acetosella) lights 
up the roadside at the archway under the 
Fringed Gentian. trccs. The rosc-likc blossoms of the purple 

flowering raspberry {Rubus odoratus) , a plant somewhat uncommon in 
Worcester Count}-, attracts us to its home under some great oaks 
and chestnuts, where its abundance gives it unusual dignity; while 
over our heads, the golden woodpecker and oriole fly back and forth. 
From our window\s in the winter we look out on the snow depths after 




40 



a severe ' ' cold spell ' ' to watch the little brown Labrador birds hopping 
in the branches, for the}' only come in the coldest of mid-winter, from 
their far northern home. From the edge of the woods we gather a 
large bunch of closed gentians ( Gcntiana Andrcivsii) , the 




Closed Gentians. 

" Flower all elusive, guarding alike from the 
rain and the sun 
The ni3-stical heart of thyself," 

to brighten the rooms at home for 

"Seven threads of light 
Morning's gold and evenings' red, 
Braided with the starry night," 

week after week, sometimes keep- 
ing fresh and bright with undimmed 
color for five or six weeks. In stim- 
mer we follow the road through 
fields fragrant with flowers and ber- 
ries. The bushes are blue with 

high bush l)lueberries ; great clusters of blackberries 

hang coyly under the leaves, and 




An Orchis. 




Cardinal Flower. 



41 



the flow 
tlirowin 



" Along the roadside, like the flowers of gold 
That tawny Incas for their gardens wronght, 
Heavy with sunshine droops the goldeiirod," 

er most typical of sttirdy American energy and independence. 

o- to the breeze its graceful richness of delicacy and color. A 

branch of brilliant maple leaves, rival- 

-- — — -?)-,• ling the sunset in hue, waves gently 

to and fro, a warning of the chill of 
winter soon to come. Two great elms, 
guarding a deserted homestead at 
the end of the road, indicate the long 
battle with fortune fought by one of 
the early settlers of Gardner. The 
grass under the great trees, dried by 
the fierce August heats, invites us to 
its .soft embrace, 

.. * * * * l)right clouds. 
Motionless pillars of the brazen heaven, — 
Their bases on the mountains — their white 

tops 
Shining in the far ether,— fire the air 
With a reflected radiance," 

and we rejoice in all the glorious 
wealth of display and generous pro- 
fusion of the waning of a New Eng- 
land summer. 
In the darkest corner of the dark 

woods we seek and find another of 

the ghost flower family, the many- 

flow^ered Indian pipe ( Moiotropa hy- 

popitys ) . 

Beautiful as the location is, the 

desolation of the fine old homestead 

strikes us to the heart, and the sen.se 

of loneliness grows within us when we 

learn that, a few^ years since, there 

was found under the bushes by the 

road, where it had been hidden for 

more than sixty years, a skeleton, 

with a bullet-hole through the grin- 
ning skull. The careful concealment 





Indian Pipe. 

{ Many-flowered.) 



42 

of the body forbids a charitible solution and couples the dreadful 
bullet-hole with crime alone. The silence of sixt}^ years grows into 
the silence of eternity, and the white bones of the victim may rest 
peacefully in a soon forgotten grave ; the momentary uncovering of the 
tragedy excites only passing comment, and the curtain falls as the in- 
cident sinks into oblivion. 




43 




' The whispering pines meet in converse.' 



44 










Q 5 



* H 



Bailev? Broof^ au& Xake IDenison. 

But when the spirit moves you some bright day in early summer 
when the sun's heat hastens all vegetation forward, drive west through 
" lyittle Canada," by Crystal Lake, and see the floating hearts {Liui- 
na)itlici)iui)i lacunosiini ) covering the surface, with the slender pipewort 
( Eriocaulon scptangulare ) thrusting its white points beside them. 




The White Beach, Lake Denison. 

Go past Bailey brook, with its vistas of reflections and promises of 
autumnal glories in the foliage on its banks, where 

" Down bend the banks, the trees depending 
grow, 
And skies beneath with answering colours 
glow," 

past the meadows, yellow in spring with cowslip blossoms ( Caltlia 
palustris) and the golden ragwort '~^Senecio aureus) , down the long hill 
where the rhodora grows, its frail, naked blossoms lighting up the 
whole bleak pasture, on down to the head of the Reservoir, where the 
whispering pines meet in converse overhead, and form 

"***«» ^ pillared shade 
Upon whose grassless floor of red-brown hue," 



46 

we find a rich treasury of flowers. L/et the horse walk awhile, for the 
yellow clover ( Trifolinni agrarium) is sweet here, and earlier in the 
year the brilliant red of the fringed polygala ( Polygala paucifolia ) 
catches the e3'e. An old stump, cut when the pond was first flowed, 
has a tiny seedling pine starting from its top, delighting the children 
when it is pointed out as a " curiosity." From this pond great turtles 






^rt^m iff f^ 



■^->r 



*¥^'^«' 






Blueberry Blossoms. 

come, one huge fellow weighing over fifty pounds, with a shell over 
two feet in diameter. 

We stop here under the pines, and, looking across the waters of the 
stumpy pond, see the Templeton hills in the distance ; behind us the 
road disappearing in a vista whose beauty lingers in our memory for 
many a day thereafter. Here from the swampy, brush-grown recesses 
of the woods, we pluck the purple fringed orchis {Habcnaria fimbriata) . 
Here the ground is white with wax flowers, the pyrolas, pipsissewa and 
moneses, the bunchberry { Cormis Canadensis ^ and the delicate stars 
of the Dalibarda rcpc7is. 



47 

We may go north through Wiiichendon, south through Templeton, 
or go straight on through Mill Glen to Lake Denison, a famous ancient 
resort of the Indians, and the home of the white water-lih' {A[viiiphaca 
odoi'ata ) , which grows here in thousands. 

"God's plaus like lilies pure and white unfold, 
We must not tear the close shut leaves apart, 
Time will reveal the calyxes of gold." 




The Beryl Mine. 



Near the lake is the ford across Miller's river, beside which Mrs. Row- 
landson camped with the Indians on her return to Wachusett for ran- 
som, the soldiers abandoning the pursuit on the farther shore. Beyond 
the lake, a b^-road follows the abandoned bed of the railroad, whose 
cour.se was changed to the other side of the river. It runs straight as 
an arrow for nearly two miles, at one time high above the swamp on an 
embankment, at another cutting through a rocky hill, where ledges 
tower above our heads 

"Huge pillars that in middle heaven uprear 
Their weather-beaten capitals." 

Overgrown wnth brtish, uncared for, in the spring axle-deep in water 



48 




rn i- 



(LI OJ 



49 

at one end, a drive on such a road is an inspiration to the tired worker, 

and 

" The calm shade 
Shall bring a kindred calm, and the sweet breeze 
That makes the green leaves dance, shall waft a balm 
To thy sick heart." 

Whether you go on to the beryl- mine, or the granite quarry in Royal- 
ston, or visit Doane's or Forbes' falls, or remain quietly at Lake Deni- 







Ladies' Tresses. 



son to fish and pick lilies, and dig in the pure, white sand, makes 
little difference, for 

" * * * All that is most beauteous is imaged there 

In happier beauty ; more pellucid streams, 

An ampler ether, a diviner air. 

And fields invested with purpureal gleams." 

The passing of the seasons is reflected in the flowers by the way- 
side, and as the heart thrills at the sight of the first may flower in the 
spring, so it is chilled by the coming of the golden-rod in the early 
autumn. The colors of the prevailing flowers change, too, as the sea- 
sons wane, for the delicate white and yellow of the violet and Clintonia 
borealis pass into the waxy-white and pink of the larger and more 
ornate laurel ; that in turn into the richer pink and purple of fleur-de-lis 



50 




WHITE-FRINGED ORCHIS. 



51 

and lily and trumpet-weed. The pure white of the daisy is succeeded 
by the brilliant red of the fireweed and the yellow of the primrose and 
golden-rod, and they again by the deep purples of the asters, until late 
autumn crowns the whole with the gorgeous coloring of the changing 
maple leaf ; and the mantle of winter's snow softly covers all the 
flowers, to await in safety the certain resurrection of the spring. 
For there is 

" A little drop of Heaven in each diamond of the shower, 
A breath of the Eternal in the fragrance of each flower." 



" The Beauty which old Greece or Rome 
Sung, painted, wrought, lies close at 
home ; 
We need but eyes and ear 
In all our daily walks to trace 
The outlines of incarnate grace, 
The hymns of gods to hear ! 




found in the Swamp. 

(1850.) 



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